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After 15 years on Oleatha Avenue in south St. Louis, McClure Engineering has purchased and will be moving to the historic Cupples 1 building at 1000 Clark Street. Built in 1896, the building is on the National Registry of Historic Places and is part of the Cupples Warehouse district downtown. Located two blocks west of Busch Stadium, the firm will occupy two of the building’s six floors while leasing the remaining space to new and existing tenants. The iconic St. Louis warehouse was renovated in 2006 yet maintains the building’s historic appeal with large windows, exposed brick interior and wood frame timber structure.

The move comes after expressed interest from neighboring company, Huvepharma, who plan to expand into the firm’s Oleatha location. The purchase of the new building will allow McClure to grow, providing needed space to add 15 to 20 workers over the next few years. The firm will renovate two floors of office space to house staff and will adopt a new open floor plan to promote teamwork and collaboration.

Ross & Baruzzini, a St. Louis-based international design, consulting and engineering firm, has opened a Kansas City regional office at 6811 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Suite 201, in Overland Park, Kansas. The new office – the firm’s 12th in the U.S. – strengthens its network of services and affirms its commitment to providing local delivery to an expanding client base.

The new office is the second Ross & Baruzzini has opened in the Midwest in the past six months. In August, 2016, the 265-person firm announced the opening of an office in Chicago through the acquisition of Mitchell Planning and Associates. Posting more than $40 million in sales, 2016 was the company’s most successful year in its 64-year history.

Bill Overturf

“We are motivated to continue on the growth trajectory that has more than doubled the size of our firm in the past five years,” remarked Bill Overturf, III president of Ross & Baruzzini. “Growth enables us to provide new leadership opportunities for individuals to step up in our organization and to attract and retain truly great people. Kansas City, where we enjoy a number of close client relationships, is a natural next step.”

Leading the office is Dan Phelan, P.E., LEED AP BD+C, a project manager and senior mechanical engineer who has been with Ross & Baruzzini for nearly 10 years. Phelan has led projects for clients in the government, higher education, healthcare and research sectors. In addition to leadership qualities, he has deep technical skills focused on energy-saving retrofit projects and sustainable design techniques.

“It gives me great pleasure to lead the Ross & Baruzzini Kansas City office,” said Phelan. “I am honored and excited to be part of this new growth initiative. The expansion will help us enhance relationships with clients in the region and engage new clients across multiple markets.”

The phone number of the new office is 913.258.5026.

Ross & Baruzzini (http://www.rossbar.com) is a 265-person international consulting and design firm with offices across the U.S. and with projects in more than 30 countries on 5 continents.

As St. Louis celebrates Black History Month in February, we acknowledge those African American men and women throughout history who fought for equality, improved the lives of others and achieved great success.

Locally, Michael Kennedy Sr., founder of KAI Design & Build, the largest minority-owned design and build firm in St. Louis, said he was influenced by the words of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, who visited his university in 1966 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, to pursue a career in the white-dominated field of architecture. Kennedy talks about his journey to becoming a minority architect during the Civil Rights Era in the new book, “Rare Company: St. Louis Entrepreneurs and How They Got Their Start” by John Berglund. https://www.amazon.com/Rare-Company-Louis-Entr…/…/B01JQMJWLA

KAI Design & Build is a national 100+ person design and build firm headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. A renowned leader in the industry, KAI provides design and build integrated project delivery solutions through collaboration, technology, processes and expertise.

The Roofing & Siding Contractors Alliance (RSCA) is a professional contracting group representing more than 55 member companies throughout the St. Louis bi-state region. RSCA members provide the complete range of roofing and siding services, for all types of commercial and residential projects in Missouri and Illinois. RSCA promotes the highest industry standards and practices, and solid corporate citizenship, advancing the professional and community profile of its member companies.

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The St. Louis area saw a significant slowing in construction activity as the end of the year approached. According to Dodge Data & Analytics, construction activity in nonresidential building slipped 72 percent in November from the same month a year earlier, construction activity in the residential sector fell 52 percent. (All dollar amounts shown in thousands.)

2016 2015 Change

Nonresidential $61,161 $220,330 – 72%

Residential $116896 $224,404 – 52%

TOTAL $178,027 $464,734 – 62%

The losses in November pulled down numbers for the year. In the first 11 months of 2016, nonresidential construction was off 26 percent compared to 2015, while residential construction was up six percent. As a result, total building construction was down 11 percent on the year. (All dollar amounts shown in thousands.)

2016 2015 Change

Nonresidential $1,463,516 $1,975,477 – 26%

Residential $1,920,042 $1,808,473 +6%

TOTAL $3,383,558 $3,783,950 – 11%

The residential category consists of both single family and multifamily housing. The nonresidential category consists of everything else.

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The plan to replace Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital (BJWCH) is a step closer to reality. After nearly two years of planning, the design of the new hospital is complete and approved by the BJC Board of Directors. Contractors are expected to break ground in the first quarter of 2017.

“We’re very excited to share the vision of our beautiful new facilities,” says Trish Lollo, president, Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital. “The design team has worked closely with our leadership and team members to create a modern patient care environment that further enables clinicians to provide the very best care and support the needs of our patients.”

The new hospital calls for 64 private patient rooms, four intensive care unit rooms and 14 operating rooms, with room for future expansion to 100 patient rooms and 16 operating rooms. An adjoining medical office building will facilitate access to hospital services. The new facilities will be constructed on the existing Creve Coeur campus.

“The patients at our BJC hospitals have come to expect exceptional care in a comfortable, safe and healing environment,” adds Lollo. “The new facilities are designed to incorporate advanced approaches to patient care, which will further support our skilled clinicians.

The new hospital will open first quarter 2019. Project updates will appear on BJC.org/Construction/bjwch.

What is being built – by the numbers

260,000-square-foot hospital

Three levels of private patient rooms

64 rooms will open in 2019

Capacity for 32 additional rooms in response to future growth

14 operating rooms will open in 2019

Capacity for two additional operating rooms in response to future growth

Four intensive care unit rooms

Separate elevators for staff, patients and visitors, and supplies

Welcoming lobby, waiting areas, guest services and café

Interventional radiology

New emergency department

100,000-square-foot medical office building

Connected to the hospital

Four floors of physician office space

Convenient parking directly under the building

Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital is a 77-bed community medical center located in west St. Louis County and has been providing has been providing high-quality health care in a compassionate, healing environment since 1989. The hospital offers 24-hour emergency care, diagnostic and therapeutic services, as well as a full range of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures.

Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital is a member of BJC HealthCare. BJC is one of the largest nonprofit health care organizations in the United States, delivering services to residents primarily in the greater St. Louis, southern Illinois and mid-Missouri regions. BJC serves the health care needs of urban, suburban and rural communities and includes 15 hospitals and multiple community health locations. Services include inpatient and outpatient care, primary care, community health and wellness, workplace health, home health, community mental health, rehabilitation, long-term care and hospice.

The New Rule went into effect June 23, 2016 but allows a one year leeway for the industry to fully comply. The ruling cuts the Permissible Exposure Level (PEL) by half, a significant change that concrete trades need to prepare for. It also increases the amount of medical exams and recordkeeping required.

ASCC Safety Bulletins are brief discussions of the most severe safety issues facing concrete contractors and are published periodically. Contractors receive a complete set of Bulletins when they join the organization. They are available for sale to non-members. Information.

The SRMC is a specialty council of the ASCC, dedicated to making ASCC contractors the safest in the industry. The Council board consists of safety and insurance professionals from all aspects of the concrete contracting industry. The group meets three times a year and spends countless additional hours overseeing safety matters for the organization. Council activities include publication development, review and monitoring of ASCC events and materials for safety compliance, member education, maintaining a safety awards program, and staffing a safety hotline.

The ASCC is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the capabilities of those who build with concrete, and to providing them a unified voice in the construction industry. Members include concrete contracting firms, manufacturers, suppliers and others interested in the concrete industry, such as architects, specifiers and distributors. There are over 650 member companies in the United States and 14 foreign countries. For more information visit the web site at www.ascconline.org or call (866) 788-2722.

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The Lawrence Group and FoPa Partners showed off plans for the City Foundry Saint Louis project gave tours of the nearly 90-year old foundry building in St. Louis’ burgeoning Midtown neighborhood to a couple of hundred people at a “sneak preview” Thursday evening.

The master plan for the 17-acre project calls for a four-phase redevelopment, beginning with the historic foundry building.

Phase 1 would focus on creating 150,000-square-feet of retail and restaurant space and 78,000-square-feet of office space out of the old foundry building, including a central food hall. In addition, Byco Building on the northeast corner of the site would be redeveloped to house a 30,000-square-foot grocery store on the street level and possibly 30,000-square-feet of offices on the lower level; and 43,000-square-feet of new retail space will be constructed. The develop hopes to have the first white box space ready for tenant build-out in 2018.

Phase 1 also would include infrastructure work to support the later phases and conversion of an elevated railway spur into a walking and biking trail into the heart of the development. The site on the north side of the foundry building will be lowered by about eight feet so that people will enter the foundry at floor level instead of one level above the floor.

Phase 2 is intended to be a 380,000-square-foot, 24-story apartment tower on the northwest corner of the site.

Phases 3 and 4 would be new office towers, totaling 280,000-square-feet, with associated parking and street-level retail.

Development Strategies assisted with the planning. Grimes Consulting is providing civil engineering. S.M. Wilson & Company is providing pre-construction services.

SCI Engineering is the environmental consultant. Midwest Services Group is abating the hazardous materials, which include asbestos, lead, and other heavy metals.

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Burns & McDonnell has been awarded a $9.5 million indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for commissioning services to be provided during the programming, design and construction of a new NGA replacement campus in North St. Louis. The contract covers all of the project through design, construction and transition phases of the Next NGA West (N2W) campus.

The commissioning program is already underway in support of preliminary engineering design of facilities on the new 99-acre campus. Commissioning activities over the duration of the contract will support programming, planning, design, construction and operation of N2W facilities.

Commissioning is increasingly recognized as a critical step in the programming, design and construction of highly complex facilities because of the potential of reducing maintenance and operating costs, extending lifetimes of systems and equipment and ensuring comfortable and productive environments for building occupants. Commissioning professionals are now commonly engaged during early-phase project design as a strategy to better manage project budgets and reduce project risk.

“We are honored to be a part of a project that is so important to the city of St. Louis and to our national security,” says David Meyers, Manager of Commissioning for Burns & McDonnell. “These facilities will have some of the most complex systems ever constructed so commissioning will play a key role in getting this unprecedented program turned over to the NGA.”

The North St. Louis site was selected in early 2016. The NGA has been located in St. Louis since 1942. But the current campus could no longer support the NGA’s rapidly evolving mission as both an intelligence and combat support agency. The NGA fulfills many national security priorities in partnership with the intelligence community and Department of Defense.

Burns & McDonnell is a company made up of more than 5,300 engineers, architects, construction professionals, scientists, consultants and entrepreneurs with offices across the country and throughout the world.

McGrath & Associates has completed construction on the expansion of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri headquarters at 2306 Ball Drive in Maryland Heights. The new Berges Family Girl Scouts Program Center houses programs that are focused on STEM careers, health and money management. Oculus Inc. was the architect. Landmark Contract Management was the owner’s representative.
McGrath constructed the 6,500-square-foot one-story facility in an existing space adjacent to the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri headquarters. The new program center includes a robotics lab, science area, demonstration kitchen and program studio. Design features include suspended lighting, acoustical ceiling “clouds” and a glass feature wall.

“McGrath has been a tremendous partner in taking our ideas and working with us to bring them into fruition,” said Bonnie Barczykowski, CEO of Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. “The result is more than a space, it’s an environment that will nurture girl leadership development for years to come.”

The Program Center is the first of its kind for the organization, according to Barczykowski. GSEM has more than 43,000 girl members and 15,000 adult members in St. Louis City and 28 surrounding counties.